domjames-56539

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)

Well-acted but unfulfilling

I thought it was very similar to Fences (2016), another August Wilson adaptation and unfortunately in both I found the dialogue very tedious. The performances in both are good, in this particularly Chadwick Boseman - he has he most to work with. I didn't find any part of the narrative compelling. I enjoyed the music, but so little of the runtime is spent actually playing music. Instead there's an awful lot of wordy bickering. I feel like 50% of the lines could have been cut and you'd be left with the same film.